Sure ![:slight_smile: :slight_smile:](https://www.elektronauts.com/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=9)
Blackbox has 16 patterns. They can all run at the same time. Each of them have their own time signature, step count, launch and stop quantization and track lane, with the theoretical option to play up to sixteen samples at once, or variations of this.
When the sequencer is running, each pattern starts and stops at the quantized level you’ve set when you launch them. 1/16ths, 1/8ths, 1bar or whatever you go for. You launch patterns independently of each other.
When you batch these together in clips, in the Song Mode, the clip mode itself is the start or stop trigger for a pattern. You can start or stop a pattern at the beginning of a clip, or at a given beat within the clip. A clip has a set amount of bars can and either loop or move to the next clip, once it’s run its course.
Any patterns that keep playing across clips, don’t reset but just continue, which creates an overarching timeline of transitions between patterns that go beyond the regular start and stop launching that say occur when you move between patterns in Elektron. So if you got a long loop going, or just like the idea of a tight 11-step odd drum pattern run its entire own course across your song, while other more structured elements move in and out, that’s totally possible.
While it sounds simple, the transitions and movements these direct tools create, just make it a whole lot more interesting for me specifically to come up with ideas. I’ve been told Ableton works in a similar way, at its core, but I wouldn’t know myself so I can’t say this is true.
Circuit is similar to this, but I believe tracks reset when you switch patterns in Circuit. Deluge, however, has something similar going on, with the addition that you can also switch between variations of each track while it’s running, creating further depth. Roland’s MC sequencers do something similar as well, if I remember correctly.
If I’d boil it down to features after all, I’d say it’s this more free running approach beyond the pattern structure, that I’m really missing. The Elektron sequencer resets you from the start when you switch patterns, with the exception of the ones with samples that can free run across patterns as long as you don’t retrigger the sample. But it’s a primitive version of what I’m talking about.